The Shepard Papers
by kewlwarez
Summary: Soldier, lover, adventurer, she fought and wenched her way to glory (and lechery and skullduggery and conduct unbecoming a Council Spectre.) This is the story of Commander Shepard as the Galaxy never saw her.
1. Chapter 1 Introduction

_Shepard, __Urdnot __Harriet__. __Spectre,__ C__ommander, Star of Terra__, __Thanks of the council, __Gratitude of the Matr__i__archs, Honour Of Palaven (first class), __Volus Grand Bargain, Salarian Science Cluster, various minor me__d__als __. B 2154, admiral Hannah Shepard, __Gerrald Shepard. Educ: University of Arcturus, Alliance N7 training. M. dr Liara T'Soni, d. Benezia T'Soni, Aethyta; seven d. __Served: Alliance Marines, Skyllian Blitz (medals, thanks of parliament); Battle of Eden Prime. Served Council Spectre, Hunt for Saren, Battle of the Citadel, Battle for Omega, Final War against the Reapers. Served Ce__r__berus, Collectors War. Travelled extensively in military and civilian capacities Military advisor Clan Urdnot; chief of staff to Aria T'Loak, Omega; ho__n__ourary teacher New Grissom Academy; __ambassador to the Rachni Queen, Utukku; patron, Elcor Reduced Shakespeare Company; director Binary Helix. Mission for the Reclamation of Reduced Asari. Recreation: Mako, Hammerhead racing, recreational shooting, model building, fish breeding. _

The discovery, in a long abandoned warehouse on Omega of what the popular press insisted on labeling the "Shepard Papers" – in reality a series of some fifty outdated datapads – five years ago, almost two hundred years to the day after commander Shepard's death caused a predictable curiosity. Up until then it was not suspected the commander had ever written about her experiences of her youth, therefore the mere possibility of getting her view of those momentous events of four hundred years ago awoke an understandable curiosity. For those few privileged enough to get a glimpse at the content of these datapads however, curiosity quickly gave way to consternation.

It turned out that the good commander had been very truthful in her reminiscences and the image she depicted of herself, as well as of several of her comrades in arms, was a far cry of the heroine we all know and learned about in school. In these circumstances the company in whose physical possession the datapads were was understandably wary of releasing them to the general public without a thorough investigation towards their authenticity first, which is where I came in.

As the foremost human authority to the history of the Reaper Wars and commander Shepard's role in it, it was no more than natural that I was asked to both investigate and edit the papers. This task turned out to be more difficult than first imagined, as the surviving members of Shepard's crew during the wars were not available for consultation. Both Urdnot Wrex and Urdnot Grunt refused all cooperation, while commander Shepard's widow, doctor Liara T'soni, has not been seen in Council Space in the last three decades.

Verification of the "Shepard Papers" therefore required old fashioned historical research, starting with the datapads themselves, which were determined to be between 250 and 300 years old, which fitted in with the internal chronology of the papers. Research afterwards was concentrated on confirming the events described in the papers and seeing how they matched up with the official historical record.

Having done so, I now have no reason to doubt that the Papers are a truthful account of commander Shepard's adventures. Where she touches on matters that could be verified independently she is almost invariably accurate; readers can judge whether she's to believed on more personal matters.

The picture she sketches of herself in these papers, as said, is at odds with that of official biography. She depicts herself as a bully and a coward, a wencher who was not above a spot of plunder either when the occasion presented itself. She's frank and honest about her flaws, yet at the same time, glimpses of her more well known qualities, her leadership, ability to make allies quickly, decisiveness in combat, also shine through. Uncommon for a woman of her generation, she genuinely seemed to have had no problems with other species and could strike up a friendship with people no matter who they were. Editing the papers was a minor task; the commander had a good sense of narrative and other than matters of spelling I had to do little to make the story presentable to a larger audience.

_GMF, New Eden, 2596 CE_


	2. Chapter 2 Summoned to the Normandy

_From the first time Shepard had been proposed as a Spectre candidate I knew she'd be trouble. Looking at her career there was nothing that suggested she'd be anything but a thick necked jarhead. I feared that if she was chosen to be a Spectre, to be out there in the Galaxy representing the best of humanity, she'd be a elephant in a porcelain shop. I was right. She was rude, she was offensive, she was a coward and a bully. And god help us, she was the best hope for humanity__. _–**_ Ambassador Udina: War Diaries 2183-2186_**

Poor old Udina. He came closer than any of my friends or allies in understanding my real character. We were too much alike perhaps for him not to realise that like him, I was indeed a coward and a bully. I was having great fun reading his diaries a hundred years after he'd died. It had taken so long to release them because people thought I would be offended. Far from it. My reputation was safe, couldn't be smeared by the petty revelations of a long dead traitor. I'd won, and reading his rantings was the best form of celebration; after having actually killed him of course.

It did however, as I was sitting in comfortable silence on our bungalow's veranda watching my little blue grandchildren playing Spectres and Geth around the lakeside with their Turian, Quarian and Krogan friends, made me think that it was time to write my own memoirs as well. Having uncle Grunt visit us on Rannoch, one of the last of my friends still alive, had made me think back on our adventures as well. It also made me think of Ashley.

Ashley Williams. I hadn't thought about her in decades. She was long dead of course, lacking my and the Lawsons' longevity fixes. But in that moment it didn't matter that the Reaper Wars were a hundred years in the past. I was there again, on Eden Prime, alongside her and Kaidan Alenko, fighting off seemingly unending hordes of Geth, scared shitless and trying not to show it.

In my nightmares I can still hear that metallic chatter Geth made during combat, that hideous screech as you killed one and knew a dozen more would move in, see the glare of those stupid flash lights coming around a corner. I knew my wife had them too, I'd been woken up by her too often not to realise that.

Dear sweet Liara. Even when we first met I knew that innocent, naive archaeologist act of hers was as phoney as my war hero one. We were two of a kind and we recognised each other immediately. We could each fool the universe, but never each other. She knew I was a coward, never as heroic as everybody else made me out to be and I knew that behind her innocent façade was a soul old in sin. No wonder it had been love at first sight.

Not that this had ever stopped me from pursuing other women of course. There were so many of them over the Reaper Wars they almost made the nights in which I hid in my quarters puking my guts out from pure fear worthwhile. Even now I can remember them all. Ashley, warrior maiden in her white and pink armour, Samantha, chess playing comms nerd, Jack the psychotic biotic, Miranda and Oriana Lawson – sadly never together –, Kelly Chambers. There were always plenty of people willing to comfort Commander Shepard.

Liara knew all about them of course, if not at the time then later, when she had become the Shadow Broker. Not that she could talk. I've suspected her of more than her fair share of dalliances as well ever since I caught Kaidan making goo-goo eyes at her on the first Normandy. What with Ashley being mad at me for cheating on her and Kaidan trying to get in Liara's pants, I was hard pressed to decide who to get rid off on Virmire.

As I sat there reminiscing, my thoughts drifting to what had happened a century ago, I felt that same cold fear I had throughout the war creep up on me again. Had I known then what I knew now, I would've run away as far from that blasted ship the Normandy as I could, find a safe hole to crawl into and let somebody else save the galaxy. But that's hindsight talking. At the time I was as blessedly ignorant as a newborn babe.

I was also in delicto flagrante when the knock on my hotel door came that set me on the path which ended with me saving the Galaxy, almost by accident and completely against my will. Just having gotten myself acquainted with a very willing partner, I was in no mood to answer doors, but whoever the bugger was who was knocking, he was a persistent so and so.

Therefore like a fool I opened the door. When I loudly demanded to know what the corporal that stood before me wanted, he stood speechless, mouth agape.

"Well, out with it man, why do you persist in bothering me on my furlough?"

It was only when I caught him looking down, that I realised why it was he was so flustered. It is not every day that you see the door opened by the commander you're bringing her orders too, wearing the top half of a full dress uniform complete with Star of Terra, just her knickers underneath but with the high heeled spurred boots that went with the uniform, as well as that ridiculously plumed cap. It hadn't been my idea, but the filly I was sharing the bed with, the esteemed rear admiral Mikhailovic's wife had a thing for dark haired, dark eyed, heroic marines in full uniform and who was I to disappoint her. She had been a rare randy bit, a welcome relief after the months of enforced celibacy on my last tour.

At last the hapless marine had recovered himself enough to hand me my orders, salute and walk away, more quickly than was usual the case. I was curious to see what they were, had good hopes that it would be a nice plum assignment and when I saw I was to be assigned as the second in command of the new experimental frigate _Normandy_ it looked like I got what I'd wished for. As I said, had I known then what I know now, I wouldn't have been so bloody pleased with myself.

The _Normandy_ was to be commanded by captain Anderson, a stiff, moral prig, but one who had done wonders for my career ever since the Skyllian Blitz. It had been his commendations that had given me the Star of Terra. He always was a good friend to me. He never quite understood me of course, but that was because I always took great pains to make sure he didn't.

He didn't know I'd spent most of the Blitz hiding from the Batarians and I had been pure luck that had gotten me in the right moment at the right time to reap the rewards of my cowardice. So I emerged from that debacle as a hero, purely due to being the sole surviving Alliance officer, with any witnesses that could've told the truth safely dead. After that I only had to act the reticent, bluff marine, too modest to talk much about her heroics, to keep my reputation up. Doing some safe but high profile anti-piracy raids helped a lot as well.

And now there was my reward, a cushy and safe assignment going on a shakedown cruise with a hot new frigate. There was only one way to celebrate, getting back into bed with the rear admiral's wife for a third – or was it fourth – romp of the night.

**_A/N And so Shepard starts her career, but can you guess the inspiration behind this story? Thanks for the reviews, please keep them coming._**


	3. Chapter 3 Liara

_As the daughter one of the most powerful Asari matriarchs, Liara was trained from birth to follow in her mother's footsteps. She was expected to embody the best qualities of the Asari and __use them to shape politics in the Republic and the wider Galaxy for hundreds of years to come, to ensure the success of the path her mother had set out for it. Instead she rebelled in a way that was completely unexpected, by taking up the useless study of __Prothean archaeology, rather than shaking her ass in some strip club or working her way through the Terminus systems as an Eclipse mercenary. Non-Asari might see this as weakness, a sign of her shyness and inability to cope with the demands her mother's pl__ans put on her. Asari know better. To defy the wishes of her mother, to defy a matriarch as powerful as her needed an iron will and a very strong personality, strong enough to survive being ostracised from Asari society for decades, if not hundreds of year__s. Liara had that personality.__** – Little Wing: the Childhood of Liara T'Soni, As told to Khalisah al-Jilani by Shiala**_

The next morning, when the dear admiral's wife had gone back home to the dear admiral, I started preparations for my assignment to the _Nor__mandy_. I had only two weeks to prepare myself and my new crew for our shakedown cruise and those two weeks were some of the busiest of my life. While captain Anderson had done most of the work assembling a crew, I needed to deal with the inevitable stragglers and last minute replacements, as well as with the hard work of getting them ship shape and the _Normandy _supplied and ready. It left me little time to pursue any of my hobbies.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the Galaxy, somebody who had made her profession out of her hobby had a hard time of it as well. Doctor Liara T'Soni was heading to Omega after a fruitless dig on one of the many nameless, uninhabited planets out in the Terminus Systems.

People always tended to underestimate Liara, even after the Reaper Wars. Oh, not so much her fellow Asari. They tended to focus on the whole T'Soni, daughter of Matriarch Benezia thing and knew that young or not, the daughter of a powerful matriarch like her was nobody to fool with.

Aliens on the other hand, especially short lived species like Humans or Batarians, tended to see her as a naïve, young girl, a sucker easy to exploit. It didn't help that to Human eyes she looked like a teenager, not somebody who was well over a century old. On Omega this was worse than anywhere else. Compared to the hard bitten Eclipse mercenaries or cynical Afterlife dancers that made up the station's Asari population, a seemingly mild mannered and shy girl like Liara looked like easy prey.

Which was one reason, apart from its general sleaziness, that Liara was wary of coming there, but if you're an archaeologist who's looking for a Prothean dig that's not yet been picked clean by generations of other archaeologists, than the Terminus systems are your best shot and Omega is the only halfway decent place to get new supplies.

And she needed them badly. Four months on one site when she had meant to spent only three, with nothing to show for it, had seriously depleted her stash of food and other essentials. She needed to restock before she went on to her next dig. Therefore she was happy to finally dock. "Be nice to spent a day or two in a proper bed and with a real shower for a change", she thought as she guided her small yacht into the Omega docks.

Not long after, Liara locked her ship's door behind her, checked to see if her gun was in place, keyed up her biotics and stepped on the dock, duffel bag slung over her shoulder, keeping both her arms free. It's late in Omega's day cycle and there were only a few people around. Walking briskly through the docks and into Omega's interior, she barely noticed the human sitting in the shadows behind a garbage dump. Nor did she see him getting up and slowly start to follow her.

Liara knew where she was going and it didn't take her long to get to the hotel she had stayed in before. Her shadow stayed with her until she went into the hotel lobby, kept waiting until he was sure she'd gone to her room, then he went in. A two minute chat with the duty clerk, a couple of credits changing hands and he knew who she was.

"Jackpot."

In a backroom of the sleaziest bar in Omega, two Batarians sat watching a human counting credit chips.

"Fifty for me. Fifty for Grotto. Fifty for Zeke. Fifty for me."

"You're forgetting somebody Turk. Aria."

"Nuts. Why cut her in?"

"You know the score. She runs Omega, she gets her cut."

"So we skip her cut this time, what's she gonna do about it?"

The two Batarians looked at each other.

"Fifty for Aria, Fifty for me. Fifty..."

Suddenly the door flew open. Quick as a flash the Batarians stood up and drew their guns, while Turk grabbed the credits on the table and dropped them back in his bag.

"Turk, you gotta see this."

"For fuck's sake Crawley, knock."

Crawley grinned apologetically, "sorry boss" and sat down at the table, "but I've got good news worth its weight in credits"

Turk sighed. Crawley always thought he had golden tips and they were almost always crap. "So what's it's this time?"

"Well Boss, there's this Asari that just docked..." Turk interrupted angrily. "If I wanted an Asari whore I'd go to Afterlife". Crawley raised his hands to object. "It's not like that boss. This is that Asari the Turian was looking for, you know, T'Soni? The one with the million creds bounty?"

Turk nodded. "You sure?" "Positive. I've followed her into her hotel."

"Good. Get the boys together, we're going to pay miss T'Soni a little visit."

In a discreet backroom hidden away in Afterlife's VIP section, two Asari maidens were sitting drinking and talking. One was drinking honey mead, the other had a much more refined and expensive taste, sipping Serrice Ice Brandy. As Liara put down her glass, idly swirling her brandy, she felt happy to be in the company of one of her best friends, even if only for a few hours. Liselle T'Loak really wasn't suitable company for the daughter of matriarch Benezia, but Liara had broken with her mother in everything, including her ideas of what was and wasn't suitable company for her.

It was an unlikely friendship between the brash daughter of the queen of Omega and the daughter of a very prim and proper Matriarch, a friendship forged through their similar upbringing, both having grown up as daughters of powerful and domineering mothers.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay a couple of days, Liara", asked Liselle. "It's been far too long since we've ... been together." She wetted her lips and looked at her friend with a smile.

"_Goddess._" Liselle had been Liara's first real lover, years ago, when they'd first became friends, but their relationship had long since settled down in a comfortable friendship. But now she sounded as if she wanted to renew their love making. The abruptness of Liselle's desire threw Liara in confusion.

"N-no, I-I'm already overdue on my next dig. Sadly I'll have to leave tonight to get there on time." It's not that Liara wasn't tempted by the offer, but she didn't want to have to deal with Aria again. She was very glad her own mother never was as ...coarse... as Aria had been when she'd realised her daughter had taken Liara as a lover. _"I would die of __embarrassment__ if my own parent had behaved that way."_ Liselle though had taken it in stride, long since gotten used to Aria's ways.

"Okay. In that case, let me at least walk you to your ship. Omega isn't a very safe place for an Asari maiden as beautiful as you."

"Flatterer."

It didn't take long for Liara and Liselle, with Liselle's two Batarian bodyguards in tow, to make their way from Afterlife, through some of Omega's classier slums, to the dock area. The two Asari had little attention for their surroundings, too caught up in renewing their friendship. Had they noticed how quiet the streets suddenly were, they might not have been surprised when rough hands suddenly grabbed the both of them and dragged them off into an alleyway.

Their surprise was short lived however. Biotics flared as both Liselle and Liara threw their attackers away from them, Liselle to the left, Liara to the right, their bodies hitting the walls hard enough that neither assailant remained conscious. Liselle drew her gun, as did Liara and after they quickly checked each other for wounds, they ran back to the street they'd come from

There they found Liselle's two bodyguards under fire from a trio of humans. As the two Asari stormed out of the alley, one of the three turned around and saw them coming. Shouting a warning to his comrades, he barely had time to aim his gun before Liselle had shot him. Liara meanwhile threw a bolt of biotic energy at the second human, ensnaring him in her field, lifting him up from behind the trashcans he had hidden behind. Two shots rang out as each of Liselle's bodyguards shot him. The last human tried to run, but before he could get more than a few metres away, Liselle had caught him, disarmed him and brought him back.

Liara's heart was racing. This sort of excitement she could do without, seldom had to deal with on her digs. "Goddess, any idea who those people are and what they wanted with us?"

Liselle looked grim. "I don't know yet, but we will find out. Aria will be very interested in why scum like this thought they could attack her daughter."

Hearing this, her prisoner blanched and looked sick. He knew what happened to people who took pot shots at Aria or her family.

"Come on, you'd better get back to your ship, Liara, and forget about this. We'll find out soon enough why this scum thought he could kidnap me once mother gets her hands on him."

The two friends embraced and said goodbye. Liara's heart was still racing as she quickly moved to the elevator that would take her to were her ship was docked.

As she stepped out from the elevator, it was the silence that warned her something was wrong. Keyed up as she was from the ambush she and Liselle had narrowly escaped, she was hyper aware of her surroundings and the silence was wrong in a way she couldn't define. It was this awareness that saved her when two Batarians stepped out from the door of one of the offices directly next to the elevator when she passed it.

As they attempted to grab her, she whirled around and hit the first one with a biotic throw, landing a punch straight on his jaw, dropping him to the floor, unconscious. The second Batarian quickly tried to close the distance and Liara spotted a syringe in his hand. As he grabbed her with his left hand, he tried to bring it down with his right, but Liara managed to twist out of his grip and with another, harder throw she flung him away. He landed with a sickening thud against the elevator, neck at an unnatural angle.

All this had taken less than half a minute and as Liara looked around her, she saw several more Batarians as well as a couple of humans between her and her ship. Dropping into the inadequate cover of the office, she drew her gun and took a better look at her enemies. There were six in total, four Batarians and two humans, all armed, though none of them had yet drawn their guns. It looked like they wanted her alive, but surely she could make it to the elevator in time if she threw up a biotic shield first?

That was of course exactly when the elevator opened and a Krogan stepped through, followed by another human.

"Surrender, doctor T'Soni and we won't harm you", the human shouted in her direction. "Resist and we'll be forced to kill you".

Liara didn't deign to answer. Half hidden in the office doors, she worried furiously about what she could do. She had no desire to surrender and be taken goddess know where, but she was far from confident she could take out half a dozen mercs, let alone a Krogan. If only she'd stayed with Liselle to find out what their first attackers had wanted. It seemed clear to Liara now that she had been the target, not her friend. Cursing herself, she looked around for a way out.

Then she saw a fire extinguisher hanging next to the elevator. Without thought she sprung up, yanked it from the wall with a biotic field and threw it hard in the Krogan's face. Instinctively he put his arms up, grabbing the extinguisher, which was when Liara shot at it. One, two, three shots in quick succession were what it took for it to explode, the Krogan taking the full brunt, one hand blown off, the other no more than a stump, his face covered in shrapnel. The human was partially shielded by the Krogan and had avoided most of the blast, but looked dazed and in shock.

Switching her gun to rapid fire, Liara ran at the group of mercs between her and her ship, aiming at the nearest Batarian. His shields went down quickly and a lucky shot hit him in his forehead. As he slumped to the ground, the remaining mercs drew their own guns and starting firing back, their fire absorbed by Liara's shields. She aimed her own fire at the next closest merc, managing to score some solid hits but unfortunately not putting him out of action.

She knew she couldn't continue to just run into enemy fire, so instead she grabbed the merc with a biotic field and held him helplessly in front of her, as a living shield. His friends didn't hesitate but kept firing – "_so much for honour amongst mercs"_, Liara thought. As her field weakened and the merc collapse, she threw him at the two humans to the right of her, momentarily putting them out of the fight.

Sliding into cover behind one of the docking clamps, she concentrated her fire on the two remaining Batarians, driving them into cover behind the other clamp. She needed to deal with them fast, before their comrades could rejoin the fight. She didn't hesitate, but sent a heavy warp to yank them out of cover, followed by a singularity. The results weren't pretty. Their light shields and armour were no match for Liara's biotic powers. A normal Asari couldn't have used her biotics this way, but Liara wasn't an ordinary Asari.

Unlike most maidens, Liara had never had the traditional Asari commando training. Instead she had had something much more useful, personal training by her mother's acolytes, especially Shiala, one of the most powerful and experienced biotic powerhouses the Asari had ever produced. From the first time her biotics had manifested themselves, at age ten, she had been trained daily in their uses, learning everything a commando would've learned, and much more that they didn't. The training had increased her stamina to the point where she could use her biotics for far longer than any but the most experienced Asari commandos. This had come in handy whenever she had had to fight off raiders at one of her digs, but now it was essential.

The Batarians dead or dying, she moved over to the two humans, one of who had just managed to get himself up from under the corpse of his comrade, before Liara shot him at point blank range. The other was still pinned, but raised his pistol in a desperate attempt to shoot her before she could shoot him, but it was too late. A shot in his neck, blood gushing out, put him out. He frantically tried to stem the blood flow, but it was too much. Within a minute he too was dead.

The docks were quiet now and Liara moved quickly towards her ship's airlock. It was more instinct than warning that made her turn around, just as half a ton of enraged, dying Krogan slammed into her. She managed to land on her back, but the Krogan on top of her, the stump of his left arm on her neck, choking her. Desperately she tried to yank his arm of her, bring her gun up, kick him off her, do anything to stop her choking her. She felt herself panic, more so as out of the corner of her eyes she saw the human who'd ordered her to surrender come at her as well, gun in hand.

"We tried to do it the easy way, but now that Turian will have to pay for your corpse."

Liara had no clue what the human was babbling about, but she knew that if she couldn't get out from under the Krogan choking here, she'd die here. As she started to black out, she tried to pull off one last biotic throw, but even her vast powers were momentarily exhausted. Just as she was going under she heard two loud shots and the Krogan on top of her suddenly collapsed.

She barely comprehended what was happening, but knew only that she had to get out from under him. As she used her last reserves and heaved him off her, she heard another shot and the human crumbled next to her, dead.

The next thing she noticed was powerful hands pulling her out from under the dead Krogan and as she was hauled to her feet she saw Liselle and Aria looking worried at her.

"Thank the goddess we were here on time. Liara, are you all right?"

Liara took some time answering, waiting for the black spots in front of her eyes to clear. She took a deep breath and answered. "Yes, thank you, Liselle, you two came just in time. A minute later and that Krogan would've choked me to death."

She felt wobbly now the fight was over, a bit shaken, but very glad to be alive. As Liselle looked her over, Aria asked the question all three Asari were wondering about.

"When Liselle brought her prisoner to me we thought it was her those mercs had targeted, but a quick interrogation made clear it had been you they were after all along. Any idea why these idiots wanted you?"

"Goddess knows. I've never saw them before, but for some reason they wanted to kidnap me. That last human you killed seemed to be the leader and he said something about selling me to a Turian."

Aria lifted up the dead human to look at his face. "Huh. Turk. He's just a two bit gang leader. Didn't figure him for an exotic slave trader. Better be careful when you go out again T'Soni. If losers like him now think they can kidnap Asari from my station, they won't have any problems when you're alone on some goddess forsaken dig site where Liselle and I won't be around to help.

"Don't worry Aria, my next dig is safely in council space. No would be kidnappers ever hassled me on Therum."


	4. Chapter 4 Eden Prime is no paradise

_The Williams family had a long history of service to their country, first for the United States, then with the Systems Alliance marines. With the blame attached to general Williams for surrendering Shanxi to the Turians, it seemed this distinguished linage would come to an end, had it not been for one courageous woman who kept going when all the odds were against her. Ashley Williams was steeped in her family's history and the same moral courage that enabled her grandfather to surrender his command when circumstances demanded it from him, despite the consequences it had for his career, saw her stay in an Alliance military that despised her. – Ashley Williams, Hero against the Odds, Diana Allers _

Ashley Williams only told me much later how she felt on Eden Prime when she saw me coming over the hills to save her. Even decades after the Reaper Wars that moment was still imprinted on her memory. She had been on patrol with her best friend, Nirali Bhatia when the Geth attacked. When they tried to rejoin the rest of their unit, Nirali was shot down by the first Geth they encountered. Ashley could do nothing for her, barely managing to get away herself. By the time we landed, she was the sole survivor of her company, frightened and exhausted.

It seemed her luck had run out when a couple of those annoying little flying drones that had been harassing her for what seemed like hours managed to get off a lucky shot, hitting her in the back. Her shields down, she managed to roll and turn to avoid their next shots, then shot them both out of the sky. Any relief she felt was short lived as two Geth foot soldiers appeared on the scene. She ducked behind the nearest rock and knew she was going to die there.

At that moment a shot ran out from behind her and the nearest Geth fell to the ground, exploding in a sea of sparks. Another shot and the other Geth was down. It was then, as she looked bewildered around to see who had saved her, that I came over the hills.

To her I looked an avenging angel, only the single red N7 stripe on my chest breaking the black of my armour. She said it was the most beautiful sight she had ever seen, well, apart from seeing Miranda nude for the first time, but that was a long time later. She said that when she saw me coming over to her, taking off my helmet and seeing the fierce expression on my face, she knew she was saved and everything would be all right.

Had she known how much my stomach was churning and how my bowels had turned to water, Ashley wouldn't have been so sanguine. It had always been my luck – bad or otherwise – that fear never showed on me. Instead of making me pale, it drew a scarlet flush on my face, something that most people mistook for anger or determination. I never trembled either, but grew still.

Yet the honest truth was that I'd been scared ever since I saw the first images of that gigantic, claw like spaceship attacking Eden Prime coming in over the FTL video line on board the _Normandy_. It had confirmed all my worries that the presence of a Council Spectre on the ship had brought up. Spectres were bad news. Having one on the ship to "evaluate its maiden voyage", even if the _Normandy_ had been built with Council money, was such obvious bullshit that nobody believed it. Only minutes before the emergency broadcast from Eden Prime had reached us I'd learned just why and for whom the Spectre was here, but the news from the colony had put that out of my mind.

Only an hour later I was leading a scouting mission to the colony, with only two marines as backup, the Spectre having gone ahead. My second in command was lieutenant Kaidan, a biotic. Unlike many marines I had no problems with biotics. If nothing else having a biotic nearby meant always having an emergency shield handy.

Speaking of emergency shields, the other marine, a young Eden Prime native fresh out of basic training, served as one less than five minutes after we had landed. The fool had just prattled on about how harmless the gasbags were we'd just encountered at the landing site, when I sent him around a corner straight into an ambush.

Three silver drones of a type I'd never seen before shot through his shields as if they weren't there and killed him on the spot. "_Well, that's why I sent him ahead"_ I thought. Lieutenant Kaidan looked distraught, but what did he expect? Between us we shot the drones out of the sky without problems, then moved on, eventually meeting up with Ashley.

As I walked over to Ashley after the fight, I took the opportunity to get my first good look at her. A plain open face that was pretty rather than beautiful, her dark hair tied back in an efficient knot, muscular body encased in armour, she was everything a marine should be. Looking at her I felt a familiar stirring in my stomach, proof that even when stricken with fear my libido was still active.

To be honest, any other time I might not have looked twice at Ashley, but after three weeks first getting the _Normandy_ ready, then taking her out on her first cruise, spent amongst a crew that was almost all male, I was happy to see any woman. The _Normandy_ was such a sausagefest the only woman that was even remotely attractive was the ship's doctor, Chakwas, who was much too old for me.

While I had been looking her over, Ashley sprung to attention and saluted. "Gunnery chief Ashley Williams of the 212th. Are you the one in charge here, ma'am?"

I took off my helmet and answered. "I'm commander Shepard. Are you wounded Williams?"

"A few scrapes and burns. Nothing major. The others weren't so lucky. Oh man.. We were patrolling the perimeter when the attack hit. We tried to get off a distress call but they cut off all communications. I've been fighting for my life ever since."

I nodded. "Any idea what kind of enemy we're facing?" Ashley took a deep breath and looked me straight in the eye. "I think they're Geth." Lieutenant Kaidan scoffed. "the Geth haven't been seen outside the Veil in nearly two hundred years. Why are they here now?"

Ashley had an answer. "They must've come for the beacon. The dig site is close, just over that rise. It might still be there." As she finished her report I was thinking furiously. I really didn't want to encounter more of those machines, Geth or not, but it was clear we needed to get to the beacon. In which case, three guns were clearly better than two and the gunnery chief certainly seemed capable of handling hers. Even if she hadn't, she was still better company than lieutenant states-the-obvious next to me.

"We could use your help Williams." She didn't hesitate. "Aye aye ma'am. It's time for payback." I was a bit worried about her gung ho attitude, but I didn't let it show. "Let's move out". Time to go and not get killed.

_**Author's note: **this was a difficult chapter to write, to get Shepard from the Normandy to Eden Prime without boring everybody with the same scenes we've all seen so many times before. _


End file.
